This summer, Sam Collins joined 4 other KTS students on a 17 day long expedition to South Africa and Swaziland with around 40 other explorer scouts, networkers and leaders. THEIR purpose, to assist in any way possible with a number of charity projects and it proved to be an experience that HE will never forget.
We left the UK and travelled to Johannesburg where we met our Swazi scouts and hosts who would eventually become very close friends of ours during the expedition. From Johannesburg we travelled to Kruger National park where we camped for a night, and saw the incredible wildlife, including; antelopes, hippos, kudu, springbok, elephants, crocodiles, monkeys, baboons and hyenas.
From Kruger we travelled into Swaziland in our minibuses and stopped in a small community called Malibeni. We stayed with the grandmother of one of our rovers, called Gogo Khozoa, camping on her land for a week, which was very isolated but surrounded by sugar cane plantations. During our stay we travelled every day to the nearby community project which was a site where a community hall would be built. We helped the Swazis dig foundations and clear the land of vegetation, and nearer the end of our stay we filled the foundations with concrete and steel and placed the first bricks of the structure in place.
Another project that we ran simultaneously was a soup kitchen at the local orphanage where we fed a large number of hungry orphans and Swazi children. During this time, we were able to interact with the children, play games, make them laugh and even provide them with small presents. This aspect of the expedition was incredibly rewarding. On one particularly memorable day we also visited the local school where the students demonstrated some traditional dances and we were very privileged to watch their choir perform especially for us. It was certainly interesting to see how some people in the world are educated, and definitely made us reconsider our previous position and thoughts on our own education system.
At Gogo Khoza’s site we built a shower cubicle, dug a cesspit and began laying some fences. We had to stop with the fence laying, however, when one of our leaders accidentally came across a black mamba (one of the most deadly snakes in the world!!!). This really emphasised just how tough and unforgiving life can be in this part of the world. In our free time we were lucky enough to socialise and interact with the locals and we even challenged the local youth Swazi football team to a game and despite not having any shoes, they beat us 5-2!
After leaving Malibeni we travelled to the city of Manzini where we stayed at a hotel and looked around the city, and also visited a cultural village where we saw traditional dances and huts and bought souvenirs for our families and friends. We also did some abseiling and white water rafting, which was terrifying, but a lot of fun! We finished our expedition by spending the last three days at Mpumalanga scout centre back in South Africa. We did some sight-seeing on one day where we saw the stunning ‘God’s Window’, a sight that truly justifies its name. We spent the last day at the local secondary school, where we cooked a huge barbeque and watched them perform in a rehearsal they had for the musical they were producing.
I would like to thank my fellow KTS students who were a part of this expedition for helping to make it such a fantastic experience; Will Hall, Joe Royal, Caitlin Grant and Ruby Doherty. had a life changing and unforgettable experience during the expedition and would like to thank everyone at school who donated money during our charity events.